As 2016 comes to a close, WSAUA would like to wish its members, partners and other industry professionals a safe and happy holiday season. As we reflect on the past year for the industry, we would like to provide the readers of Insights a look at the most accessed articles from the year. Part 2 of the list of most accessed articles of 2016 will appear in the Thursday, Dec. 29 issue of Insights.

Healthcare IT NewsFrom Feb. 11: As if healthcare executives don't have enough worries about implementing electronic health records, yet another issue is starting to ramp up. "What's been happening more frequently in the last few years is that certain plaintiffs' lawyers – a kind of group of them who communicate with each other – have started to see the medical record as an opportunity for litigation," said Mary Re Knack, a Seattle-based attorney for the firm Ogden Murphy Wallace.READ MORE

HealthLeaders MediaFrom June 9: As the nation grapples with a widespread and persistent provider shortage, salaries for the 20 most-sought physician specialists and advance practice nurses spiked over the past year, according to a report from physician recruiters Merritt Hawkins. "You could say universally every single salary segment went up, and most of them did it in double-digit style, which is abnormal," says Travis Singleton, senior vice president at Merritt Hawkins.READ MORE

HealthLeaders MediaFrom Sept. 29: Half of physicians are disengaged, burned out, and demoralized and plan to either retire, cut back on work hours, or seek non-clinical roles, according to a new nationwide survey commissioned by The Physicians Foundation. "Many physicians are dissatisfied with the current state of the medical practice environment and they are opting out of traditional patient care roles," said Walker Ray, M.D., president of The Physicians Foundation, in remarks accompanying the survey.READ MORE

HealthLeaders MediaFrom March 31: Kaiser Permanente has chosen Pasadena as the site of its first medical school that it said will open in 2019 and take an unconventional approach to medical training. Kaiser officials said a groundbreaking for the Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine is scheduled for 2017 and that it plans to have its first class of 40 to 50 students enroll in 2019. There are currently no details on how large the school will be or the cost for tuition.READ MORE

FierceHealthcareFrom Sept. 8: For every hour physicians spend in exam room visits with patients, they spend nearly two hours on electronic health record and desk work during office hours, a new study funded by the American Medical Association finds. The study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, used trained observers to document how 57 U.S. physicians in family medicine, internal medicine, cardiology and orthopedics spent their time. In addition, 21 of them completed after-hours diaries.READ MORE

Fierce HealthcareFrom June 30: Some primary care doctors have switched to concierge practices, but now a group of Los Angeles-based surgeons is trying out the idea. The doctors believe that the concierge model can work in surgery as well, according to Outpatient Surgery Magazine. Prime Surgeons earlier this month launched an online network of what it calls "elite master surgeons" to provide patients with access to surgical care on-demand, according to the group's announcement.READ MORE

Investor's Business DailyFrom March 17: California-based Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) got a boost last week when a new study showed that patients undergoing procedures with its da Vinci Surgical Systems experienced fewer complications than subjects undergoing conventional operations. That was welcome news for the leader in robotic-assisted surgery, helping settle the long-running debate about the merits of the minimally-invasive — but quite expensive — da Vinci equipment compared to traditional surgery.READ MORE

HealthLeaders MediaFrom Feb. 4: The median salary for physician assistants across the United States is about $95,000 a year, and they're shouldering a median $112,500 in educational debt, according to a new state-by-state survey from the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants.
Dawn Morton-Rias, PA-C, president and CEO of NCCPA, calls that debt-to-salary ratio acceptable.READ MORE

The Washington PostFrom May 5: Medicine is in an era of necessary process improvement and cost cutting – the confluence of two goals that aren't always as synergistic as administrators would suggest. In academic medical centers, there is a third goal that is equally critical: Preserving and enhancing the academic mission in this challenging context.READ MORE

The New York TimesFrom Jan. 7: Dan Woska was weighing his treatment options after he was found to have prostate cancer two years ago when a friend mentioned a new genomic test that could gauge how lethal his tumor was. The test, called Oncotype DX, which looks at the expression of 17 genes in a tumor, cost about $4,000 and was not covered by Mr. Woska’s insurance. But through a patient assistance program, the company that created it, Genomic Health, ran it for him free, using a tiny grain of tissue left over from his biopsy. The results indicated there was an 81 percent probability that Mr. Woska’s tumor would not spread beyond the prostate. On an aggressiveness scale of zero to 100, the tumor was an indolent 15.READ MORE